Parliament suspended following 'mock funeral ceremony'

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 June 2003, 12:34 GMT]The Speaker Mr.Joseph Michael Perera adjourned Thursday parliament for
about an hour when a group of opposition parliamentarians entered the house
dressed in black clothes and carrying a replica of a coffin, parliamentary
sources said.

Opposition parliamentarians later sat in the well of house surrounding the
replica of the coffin and conducted mock funeral ceremony. The agitation was
carried out by a group of parliamentarians belonged to Peoples Alliance
(PA) and Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) in protest to the killing of a
Provincial Councilor Mr.Sunil Mendis, sources said

Parliament sessions were suspended for about forty-five minutes on Tuesday
also when the opposition protested to the government's failure to take
necessary security measures against killings in the northeast, sources said.